Cathy's Art Diary

Delightful exhibition at the Garden Museum looking at Cecil Beaton's gardens and the influence of gardens and flowers on his work. This show was beautifully designed by Luke Edward Hall incorporating his delicate murals reflecting Beaton's style. I had recently seen him do a similar response to the work of Oliver Messel at Glyndebourne and of course Beaton and Messel were friends. I will say though that I didn’t see the purpose of the tin foil in the display cabinets other than that they gave a sense of glitz. The coverage of the show was broader than I expected covering theatrical designs by Beaton which were influenced by flowers and portrait photographs which included them. I loved the inclusion of a set model for Turandot at the Metropolitan Opera House alongside headdresses from the Covent Garden version of the production. My favourite sections looked at the gardens he created at Ashcombe House and Reddish House and how he used them for parties and with friends. C...

Glorious exhibition at the National Gallery of the Neo-Impressionist collection of Helene Kröller-Müller. This show included many beautiful paintings. The Neo-Impressionists are the artists we might think of as pointillists which is s a style, I am fond of so I was so excited to see so many of the works together. The subjects were much broader than I expected. I tend to think of the pictures as landscapes, but I loved a room of portraits. I expected to see Signac and Seurat but new finds included the Belgium artist Theo van Rysselberghe and my favourite work in the show was this picture by him of five women in a garden. I love the way you can't see their faces. A lovely touch was to include two paintings inspired by works by Millet as there is also a small exhibition of his work in the gallery at the moment. These included a Van Gogh who wasn't a Neo-Impressionists but experimented with some of the techniques and he visited Seurat's studio. This is a show that work...

Useful lecture at the National Gallery introducing their exhibition of Neo-Impressionist works from the collection of Helene Kröller-Müller. The co-curators of the show, Christopher Riopelle, curator of post 1800 works at the gallery, and Julien Domercq, formerly of the gallery and now at the Royal Academy, talked us through the story of the collection and the context of the works in it. They explained how Helene Kröller-Müller started collecting in the early 20th century aided by the painter and architect, Henry van de Velde and how the design for the exhibition references the museums he built for her. She was also a collector of Van Gogh's and owned 90 of his paintings but started collecting the works of the Neo-Impressionists, which we might think of as Pointillists, and how she thought of the collections as the yin and yang of art, one full of passion and one calm and serene. They talked us though a simplified explanation of the colour wheel and how these artists placed ...

Delightful online lecture from the Victoria and Albert Museum interviewing Anna Robbins, costume designer for Downton Abbey. Robbins has designed for the last two series of Downton and the three films. One stage with her were some of the pieces from the latest film, which hadn't come out when the talk happened, and she talked us through the design process for them. She was ably interviewed by Emily Harris from the museum who got her to talk though how she gathered her ideas, how the outfits were constructed and how she used vintage pieces. She talked about how the clothes had to be historically accurate but were to be used in a world of imagination and had to reflect the narrative arch of each character. I was fascinated to hear how often one outfit then sets the palette for a whole scene with other pieces reacting to it. I now can't wait to see the film at the weekend! Stop Press: I have seen the film by the time of writing, in fact I’ve seen it twice, and loved it.

Interesting exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery as a result of their annual partnership project with six universities exploring contemporary portrait photography. For this partnership the gallery brings together curators and photographers with students via talks, workshops and tours and invites them to make their own work based on themes from the previous year's Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize but these weren’t outlined. The show was in a small gallery so there was a disappointing number of works on show which they compensated with by three audiovisual displays, which was a bit much for the space. I would also have liked to know a bit more about the works in the av show as it was they were just interesting images. Closed 28 September 2025  

Excellent iteration of this annual exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery showcasing the shortlisted paintings in the competition for contemporary portraits. This year included a number of works which referenced art history as well as a number of hyper-realistic pieces which I loved. These included Simon Thomas Braiden's beautiful portrait of impresario, Philip Sallon in a wonderful turquoise outfit. I always find themes emerge and this year it seemed to be age and in particular dementia such as Paul Wright's large painting of his mother in a room of objects reflecting her life in bright colours. As ever there were also some great self-portraits such as Comhghall Casey's close up. My favourite this year, and I admit I am quite shallow, was Jose Antonio Martinez Santos's portrait of a fireman sitting on the running board of his engine. It dominated the room with its detail and direct gaze. A close second was Dide's "Portrait of a Sculptor" showi...